Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Inflation Refund Checks Are Now Being Sent to 8.2 Million New York Households

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Inflation Refund Checks Are Now Being Sent to 8.2 Million New York Households

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York State's first-ever inflation refund checks up to $400 are now being sent to 8.2 million households statewide. Starting today, checks will be mailed directly to eligible New Yorkers, with deliveries to continue throughout October and November. There is no need to apply, sign up or do anything to receive a check. Governor Hochul secured and enacted this initiative as part of her ongoing commitment to putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. Earlier this year, the Governor also secured and enacted initiatives to cut taxes for the middle class to their lowest levels in 70 years, expand New York's Child Tax Credit to up to $1,000 per child and ensure universal free school meals to save families around $1,600 per child.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Well,  good morning. Oh, the day has finally arrived. We've been talking for over a year about putting more money back in people's pockets, and I'm so proud to be here at this wonderful place to talk about what this means to real families - the fact that we've worked so hard.

And I want to thank Ashli and Daquetta for joining us here today - you'll be hearing their remarks shortly. We also have some elected officials. Our County Executive, Dan McCoy, is here. Let's give him a round of applause. Our Mayor, Kathy Sheehan - thank you, Mayor. Our partners in the State Legislature, Assemblymember John McDonald - and I'm going to say this, don't get confused, there's another John McDonald in the audience. The original John McDonald - who today celebrates his 95th birthday - has joined us. Mr. McDonald, please stand up. The father of our Health Commissioner, father of our Assemblymember - there we go.

He said, "I heard you're handing out money for my birthday."

I said, "Yes, I'm coming over."

This is all about you, Mr. McDonald - 37-year employee at the State DOT, so extraordinary service as well. Members of my team are here from the Department of Taxation and Finance, and other members of my administration, as well as our community partners and friends in labor.

So, what are we doing? Well, I have said for a long time, I know what it's like, how families struggle. You just get this sense you're not getting ahead. What are you doing wrong? You got the job you thought would make a difference or the degree you thought would make a difference.

You work hard and you know the bills keep piling up, and you just look at them and say, "When will it ever stop? And why are the numbers getting higher and higher?" It's your utility bills, your grocery bills, the mortgage or the rent bills - it just seems incessant. And now, insurance. Have you seen insurance premiums lately? And it seems incessant, and New York families are just getting so beaten down sometimes.

And I reflect back on my early days - very early, little girl growing up near Lake Erie, near the Bethlehem Steel plant. My parents lived in a trailer park. Eventually, they were able to do a little better; got a little apartment where I lived and next, a house. A lot of little kids kept showing up. And I've told you my mom had to make that meal budget stretch, family of eight. You know what spreads a lot? Pancakes. We had pancakes for dinner a lot. I still like pancakes for dinner, by the way. But then my mom would make the tuna noodle casseroles, stretch that out - lots of noodles, the spam sandwiches.

And every time I say this, people say, "Well, what's wrong with spam?" Nothing personal. But when you open up the can, that jelly looks a little weird to me. I mean, am I right about that? Okay. Mom would fry that up, slap it on a piece of day old toast and call it dinner. And she did the best she could. And our clothes came from used clothing stores a lot of the time if we didn't have to put it on layaway. We were never those kids that could walk up to the checkout counter with all the things that were going to buy because we had to put it on layaway - we'd come back months later.

Because of that, and also the fact that we were able to escape those circumstances, I'm keenly sensitive and empathetic to what families are going through, because sometimes it just seems like everything's stacked against you. But I want to make people feel different in New York. I want people to have that sense of hope and optimism, that despite all the incoming that is just swirling around, all the political news - your heads are like, "What is happening now?" And the fact that Republicans in Washington are not doing what we were told would happen on day one. Remember this quote? "Day one, the prices are going down. Day one, your utility bills are going down."

I think on January 20 or so was day one, 21st - and doesn't feel like day one. And so, what are we going to do about it here in New York? We can complain about Washington - believe me, I will - because what they're doing is unconscionable. Making 2 million New Yorkers live in fear that they're going to lose their health care. They won't be able to pay to go to a doctor, preventative care for their little babies. And speaking of babies, all this talk about vaccines and you can't get a COVID shot - it gets to be too much. So Washington's doing their thing, we're fighting back.

But what can we do here in the great State of New York just to lift the burden a little bit? And I worked with our legislators, and we talked about this in my State of the State address last January.

And I said, "Your family is my fight, and I'm going to do everything I can to put more money back in your pockets."

And we rolled it out. We rolled it out. And we talked about something I also know personally - and seeing my children struggle with their little children - the cost of child care. Who would've thought that'd be one of the biggest expenses?

And people are saying, "I can pay for child care now, but I won't be able to pay for college later then." I mean, you're going to invest in your child when they're young or older - this is what families are struggling with.

So, child care costs. We realized when I first became Governor that there was a tax credit, but only for children four years old and up. Now, does anybody think that they're really inexpensive from birth to age four? You're buying that formula, the diapers. My daughter's visiting, I just saw her. I was working all week, and I just had a chance to see her; two-month-old baby. "Mom, I'm out of diapers already. I have got to go buy some diapers." The expenses are high. We decided that we could help families by giving them, this year, $1,000 back in their pockets for children under the age of four, $500 for older children - that adds up.

Something else we realized: People were spending a lot of money on their kids' nutrition - breakfast and lunch - and some kids were not getting proper nutrition. And there was a stigma associated with the whole idea that "I'm going to go over in this line at the school for my lunch, and everybody's going to know that I'm one of those kids that needs subsidized food because my parents don't have enough money."

That's a stigma that can live with you forever. Why do I know this? I heard this from an elected member of the State Legislature on Long Island who came up to me and told me when we announced this - a Republican - said, "I was that kid who skipped meals every day because I couldn't afford it, and I didn't want people to know that I had to get extra help, because that never left me."

So I said, "We can pick up the cost of school, breakfast and lunches for every family." First of all, it makes sure those kids are well fed; they're not sitting there with their stomachs growling. And secondly, it puts money back in their pockets, about $1,600 per child per year.

I had a dad come up to me on the street the other day. I walk the streets of Manhattan. I walk the streets of Albany. People come up to me. A gentleman in Manhattan comes up and goes, "I want to thank you for what you did with the school lunch program."

And I'm looking at him, I was like, "Okay?"

He says, "And the breakfast."

I said, "Why is that so important?"

He goes, "I save an hour a day. I used to have to get up early, make breakfast for the kids, wait for them to eat it, then pack up the lunches, and then I have to go grocery shopping. You save me an hour a day."

So it's not just saving money, but saving parents time. Harried parents first. I see a lot of nodding heads out there. You're really happy you don't have to make breakfast or lunch anymore. Okay, we have some happy campers in this audience. So it adds up.

We also said, "How about a middle class tax cut?" The largest tax rate cut in 70 years. Start reducing your taxes.

And there was one more thing. I said, "Okay, we're adding it all up. We're adding it all up. I'd like to get close to $5,000 back in people's pockets. What else can we do?"

And I have my Budget Director, Blake Washington. Blake, you shouldn't have told me this one. You'd have more money in our coffers.

But he says, "Governor, because of inflation, the cost of everything New Yorkers buy has gone up over the last few years. We've been able to amass $2-3 billion dollars more than we thought, than we anticipated in our Budget."

So that's sitting there. And it dawned on me instantly, this doesn't belong to us. This is because hardworking New Yorkers got slammed with higher costs of everything and they had to pay more, and then they had to pay more in sales tax.

So I said, "Why don't we give that back to New Yorkers?"

It's only there one time. You can't put on a program that you're going to need the money for the next year. We had to have this explanation with the Legislature, we can't do recurring costs. But a one time statement that we hear you, New Yorkers. We hear you. And if we could put money back in your pockets through an inflation rebate, then you know we care about you.

And I went around to malls around the holiday time, went to grocery stores here in Albany, and I'd go shopping, I'd walk up to people like, "How would it feel for you if you had an extra $400 back in your pockets?"

One time I was shopping for back to school clothes for moms at Target. I've done a lot of shopping. And I said, "What would it mean to you?"

And people were just like, "Are you kidding me? Are you serious? This could really happen? That could help with groceries for a week or two. It could help with the basket of clothes they have to buy, the sneakers, the backpack."

People realized that we understood them, that we're not just talking about this affordability crisis in vague terms. We're talking about it in concrete, real terms that are going to make a difference. And that's what a check is all about. It's going to show up. And we have - depending on your income - up to $400 a person who are going to get a check starting very soon, through the month of October and November. So watch for it.

Now, I'm going to tell you this, if your neighbor gets it and you don't, don't start calling us. Give us October and November, okay? I don't know the logic behind all this, but this is what I'm told is the timeframe. So you'll have it just in time for your holiday shopping, okay? I think that's a big win.

We're going to continue. This is not just a one-off. We're working on our State of the State right now. Last I checked, inflation is not going down. Interest rates are still high. Washington is still slamming us with everything going up because of the tariffs. Have you noticed this already? And they just said they're going to put 100 percent tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

The list yesterday was mind boggling. And you know who pays for that? You think the big corporate giants are going to say, "You know what? Americans have paid enough. We'll just absorb this extra cost." That's not happening. You're going to be paying for that when you check out or go to the pharmacy counter. You're going to be taking that cost and absorbing it along with everything else you're paying.

So we're not done. We're going to continue finding ways, in light of what is going on there, to be responsive, to show we get it. We understand, we hear your voices, New Yorkers. And that's why we are proud to announce the completion and the start of our first-ever inflation rebate.

It will be hitting your mailboxes soon. It's going to look like this, everybody - okay? And I'm going to show you. How about this? This won't get to you without a stamp.

Thank you everybody. And let me introduce some people who work with individuals who understand what this means for them, how transformative all these policies are for them. And so I want to first of all start with Daquetta Jones-Johnson, our CEO of the Trinity Alliance.

Contact the Governor's Press Office